Empire Farmstead Brewery site plan update also on the agenda

Cazenovia  Farnham Street residents continued to voice their opposition to a proposed zone change in their residential neighborhood by an artisanal cooking business during a meeting of the Village of Cazenovia Planning Board meeting on Monday, Aug. 12.

The meeting was the second hearing in one week about the request for zone change from R-6 to B-1 for the building at 8 Farnham St. The village board held a public hearing on Aug. 4, after which Mayor Kurt Wheeler said they would ask the village planning board for a recommendation on the request.

Susan Light, who purchased the property at 8 Farnham St. and is currently in the process of renovating the building, presented to the board her intentions to house two small food-industry businesses: her own wedding cake business and her friend Jennifer Wong’s heat-and-serve dinner business.

“I have been, for the past several years, doing a small amount of catering and a slightly less small amount of wedding cake preparation,” Light said. “I enjoy doing that and it gives me a little flexibility in my life … but the problem is doing it in the appropriate space.”

Light purchased the property in June with the intention of refurbishing the house and installing a kitchen in a section of the first floor that would meet all of the codes, allowing her to make her cakes and Wong to prepare her dinners.

“I understood when I purchased the property that my intended use of the house would require review by the village planning board and approval by the village board of trustees,” Light said. “It was suggested to me that the new parking lot [at 6 Farnham St.] would limit the residential appeal of 8 Farnham St., thus making it more suitable to an alternate use,” Light said.

The village plans to raze 6 Farnham St., the property next door to Light’s, to put in a parking lot for the fire department.